Well-known benefits of going to college include independence, community, intellectual growth, a sense of self-discovery. Not high among those, according to a new survey of US college students: getting prepared for working life.

In an online survey of 1,360 US college students in March and April of 2016, the education company McGraw-Hill and the analytics firm Hanover Research found that only four out of every 10 seniors graduating in the class of 2016 feel their college experience has helped them get ready for a career, and that figure is slightly lower for students across all years. (Granted, the latter includes brand-new freshmen, who tend to be relatively clueless about their career ambitions.) This was the organizations’ third annual survey of students’ workplace readiness, and the findings are very similar to those of last year.

Worst off, as one might suspect, are those who chose to study less practical or vocation-focused subjects—like history or English. While the level of preparedness among students majoring in business- or science-related fields is at the overall average, the same can’t be said of arts and humanities students. Under a third of those students say they feel “very prepared” or “somewhat prepared” for working life, and nearly one on five report feeling entirely unequipped:

Students, who self-reported their responses in McGraw’s study, may underestimate their preparedness because they lack confidence or a sufficient understanding of what employers want. But previous research bears out their pessimism: Only about a fifth of graduates manage to snag jobs right out of college, and many employers are dissatisfied with the skills new grads bring.

There are certainly things that colleges can do to help: partner with companies to offer more professional experiences, give students more career training, and amplify alumni networking opportunities, for example.

And it’s not that students are being overly picky about their work—with all the loan debt that many carry, they’re taking what they can get. In terms of opportunities, at least, things are looking up for this year’s graduates.

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3aaa in conjunction with the Children’s Guild are set to transform the state of Maryland by introducing a UK style Apprenticeship service to the city of Baltimore. With 3aaa’s experience of delivering high quality Apprenticeships in the ‘technology’ sector and The Children’s Guild’s local reputation already established within Baltimore, August 2016 will see the opening of the first 3aaa.us academy. The joint venture will see the creation of life changing opportunities for young people as a genuine alternative to the higher education which is considered the default route to employment within the USA.

3aaa will adopt their UK approach of recruiting applicants and matching them with employers on a local basis whilst providing off the job structured learning through the delivery of accredited qualifications. Employers and their employees will be supported through on site assessments against accredited competence qualifications to ensure that their knowledge is being put into practice.

For further information, please contact Paul Champion, Head of USA Operations

USA: PAULCHAMPION@3AAA.US (+1(443)-653-2121)

UK: PAULCHAMPION@3AAA.CO.UK (+44 (0755) 744 7191)

Keep an eye on our website and social media platforms as further information will be coming soon…

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A baby girl born in 2016 will be 75% more likely to go to university than a boy, if current trends continue. This isn’t just a slight difference. Women in the UK are now 35% more likely than men to go to university and the gap is widening every year. A baby girl born […]

The skills minister said the levy would be “painful” but promised to give employers more control
Skills minister Nick Boles has promised employers will “look back [on the apprenticeship levy] and say ‘we didn’t want the levy and we didn’t agree entirely with it, but we have to agree it’s created a sea change’”.
Boles made his comments at the launch of an Automotive Apprenticeship Matching Service designed to divert candidates from oversubscribed programmes to companies less able to access good quality talent.
Boles detailed the way the government would be “putting [employees] in control of every stage of the process.” He said: “We’ll continue to put you in control of the development of standards for apprentices… So if you have a new occupation not currently covered it’s up to you to get together with others in the same industry to propose a standard and go out and develop it.”
The levy is designed to tackle “the number of free riders in the system,” said Boles, defining this as “the number of your competitors who think ‘we are not going to bother with that, we’re just going to poach people that come out of the system.’”
Boles added: “I know it’s going to be painful and there will be some of you who will be dissatisfied with some of the final details”. He assured though that the government is “spending dramatically more on apprenticeships”.
Also speaking at the matching service launch was Elle Hart, HR dircetor at fuel efficiency technology developer Torotrak. She described how the new matching service complements the introduction of the levy by helping businesses benefit from the money they now have to put aside.
“We’ve toyed with the idea of apprenticeships in the past,” she reported. “But there’s always the question of how much time is it going to take, are we going to be able to give these guys and girls the input they require?” She added that difficulty attracting good quality candidates with a less well-known brand was also a factor, but that the matching services’ partnership approach combated this.
The launch of the scheme came as new research carried out by Semta, on behalf of the Automotive Industrial Partnership (AIP), was published, finding that up to 5,000 jobs in the sector could be vacant because of skills shortages. “This [the matching service] will ensure a pipeline of talent in the years ahead,” explained Stephen Spencer, chair of the Automotive Apprenticeship Matching Service.
Jose Lopes, chair of the AIP and head of technical excellence at Jaguar Land Rover, said he expected to see this kind of matching service taken up outside of the automotive sector. “We have an agnostic platform I’d like to see other sectors benefiting from,” he said.
The matching service has been developed and funded through the AIP and facilitated by apprenticeship matching platform GetMyFirstJob. It is designed to help up to 10,000 candidates per year secure an automotive apprenticeship.

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NewsDesk Hotel Owner (April 16th, 2016) Marriott International has teamed up with Renaissance Hotels and Antz to launch a training school in Manchester to help develop hospitality skills in the young and unemployed. The Marriott Academy comes after research from Marketing Manchester found – with an additional 2,986 hotel rooms in the pipeline adding to […]

Dear Dan, Can you address the key indicators of a culture of excellence and steps to establishing that culture for a school? Sincerely, Culture Builder Dear Culture Builder, Thanks for asking such a great question. My response applies to profit, not-for-profit, and education. I’ll begin by simplifying culture down to two words, beliefs and behaviors. […]

Employers of young apprentices are set to save thousands of pounds after the government abolished employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices under 25 years of age.

The change, which came into effect on 6 April 2016, will make hiring an apprentice even better value for employers across the country.

This exemption will apply to both existing employers with apprentices and those taking on a new apprentice.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said:

We’re making it even better value for businesses to take on a young apprentice. Businesses will no longer need to pay National Insurance contributions for apprentices under 25.

Apprenticeships make sense for young people and for business. If you’re an employer not already reaping the benefits, now is the time to act.

The government is committed to reforming apprenticeships to ensure they are high quality and responsive to the needs of employers by:

giving employers the power to design and deliver new apprenticeships as part of the new Trailblazer initiative. There are now more than 1,300 employers designing apprenticeships in a broad range of jobs, from TV production to nuclear engineering

introducing a new £10 million fund to boost the number of degree apprenticeships available, providing more opportunities for young people to get a degree while working at a top company

creating the Institute for Apprenticeships by April 2017 – a new independent body, led by employers that will ensure the quality of apprenticeships in England

National Apprenticeship Week 2016 took place from 14 to 18 March 2016 and saw hundreds of events take place across the country and more than 30,000 new apprenticeship places pledged by employers

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Everyone makes mistakes; that is a given. But not everyone knows how to make the most out of them. Often people are quick to blame others and make Sourced through Scoop.it from: http://www.lollydaskal.com See on Scoop.it – Leadership and Management

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This article first appeared in TES on 8 April 2016 By Andy Forbes, Principal of The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, writing on behalf of the 157 Group As a relative newcomer to working in London, I’m wide-eyed with admiration for the daily miracle that is Transport for London. Waving my Oyster […]

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We are about to launch a new careers pathway in our Education Studies degree. So today I’m talking to the current first year to try and persuade them to take the careers pathway. This is what I thought that I’d cover to try and persuade young educators that careers work is the most exciting pathway […]

At the AAC Conference in Birmingham #AAC2016
Sir Michael Wilshaw (Ofsted) Chief Inspector, gave lots of challenges to the FE sector around the quality of Maths and English and also the improvement of apprenticeship outcomes, but also was asked lots of tough questions too! He stated that locally and nationally, employers would need assistance to ensure that they can meet the challenges of delivering apprenticeships under the future reforms.

This is where NAppCO can be part of the solution. Handling payments, administration, mentoring and the general complications that is required when you handle funding etc. Simply Hiding the wiring.. Sign up now at www.nationalapprenticeshipcompany.co.uk

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Paul Champion on the launch of the National Apprenticeship CompanyTuesday, 01 March 2016 19:19

New Venture

Paul Champion chats about the launch of the National Apprenticeship Company with FE News at the Apprenticeships 4 England conference. Paul is the CEO of the Profound Group and has just launched the National Apprenticeship Company.

The National Apprenticeship Company is being set up to develop a new radical system to engage employers, for Training Providers to work together to deliver high quality Apprenticeships and a joint up approach to end assessment.

The National Apprenticeship Company will initially work with employers, training providers and to help hand hold employers through the bureaucracy of delivering high quality Apprenticeship

Paul explains that Apprenticeships are going through such a fundamental reforms that has not been seen for a generation that Profound Group have launched the National Apprenticeship Company to help employers understand and work within the new Apprenticeship reforms to help employers engage learners on high quality Apprenticeships and to procure and work with high quality Apprenticeship Training Providers.

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Recently, the chief executive of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) has warned providers that failing to adapt to changes in the FE sector could put their future in the market at risk.

Peter Lauener, who is also chief executive of the Education Funding Agency, described recent changes in the sector as radical and stressed the importance of providers finding ways to work with the new system.

He told an audience dominated by colleges and training providers: “This is a radical, radical change programme and in any radical change programme there are some organisations, some employers that will adapt and work out the best way of working with the new system — and there are others that will take longer.”

He warned that failing to adjust to developments, such as the impending introduction of the apprenticeship levy, could jeopardise providers’ progress.

“There is risk in this, particularly probably for training organisations and for colleges if they don’t adapt to the new world,” he said.

Mr Lauener repeatedly acknowledged that the process would not be an easy one, but reassured his audience that though there were “some big, big challenges” there would also be “some big opportunities”.

The National Apprenticeship Company is not hanging around!! We are developing a model that will support not only employers and training providers, it will enable all of the key players needed to have an effective transition through the reforms to work together and deliver quality apprenticeships for many years to come.